Cellular communication systems have become commonplace and are used by a large majority of people for person-to-person communication. Moreover, with the increasing use of smartphones, digitally distributed content is more and more consumed on wireless devices. While the delivery of a large part of such content, e.g. web pages, needs to be directly controllable by the user, the delivery of media content, such as video, can in many cases be shared by several users.
In order to increase efficiency of shared media consumption, point-to-multipoint systems such as broadcasting and/or multicasting can be used. In this way, network resources are shared between receiving wireless devices to a higher degree. A set of related standards for point-to-multipoint content delivery using cellular communication systems is 3GPP MBMS (3rd Generation Partnership Project-Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) and 3GPP eMBMS (evolved MBMS).
One concept in eMBMS is the MBSFN (MBMS Single Frequency Network) transmission, sometimes also referred to as multi-cell MBMS transmission using MBSFN operation-in a MBSFN area. An MBSFN area comprises multiple cells in which transmission of the same waveforms is performed at the same time. A property of MBSFN transmission is that all participating cells transmit the same content in a synchronized manner so it appears as one transmission to the wireless device. This gives the possibility for wireless devices to combine MBMS transmissions from multiple cells. Transmitting the same data to multiple wireless devices allows network resources to be shared.
EP 2 785 135 A1 discloses a method for resource allocation to MBMS services for MBSFN transmission in an MBSFN area in a mobile communication system. The resource allocation includes an assessment of a list of MBMS sessions to be scheduled for said MBSFN transmission, a method wherein a Sequence Number SN is used for said assessment, said SN determining the rank of an MBMS session in a sequence of MBMS sessions scheduled by one or more BM-SC(s) (Broadcast Multicast Service Center(s)) for said MBMS services, said rank of said MBMS session in said sequence being used in said assessment to determine a rank of said MBMS session in said list.
However, it would be of great benefit if resource allocation can be made more flexible.